Writing about music

Hudson Review, The, Autumn 2002 by Pritchard, William H

Here is a case of Tovey moving beyond technical commentary to describing the sort of "life" a piece of music can evoke. Rosen rightly characterizes it as "exquisite."

In Tovey's introduction to his Companion to the Beethoven sonatas, he warns the student about to attempt musical analysis, "It is of the utmost importance that he should never set down anything that his ear has not recognized apart from the appearance of the printed page. The ear will never learn to recognize subtleties if the power of judgment has been debilitated by a priori fancies." In his review of the recent collection, Rosen describes the ear-directed emphasis of Tovey's work as "what the French call l'explication des beautes," "a type of criticism which explains only why a masterpiece is what it is and how it works." Tovey's method in his Companion was to combine bar-by-bar analysis of each sonata with introductory, more "literary" descriptions of the particular piece's overall effect, using other Beethoven sonatas for comparison. The introductory commentary usually increases with the later sonatas, which demand more of such characterization, as with op. 53, the "Waldstein."

Tovey begins his commentary by comparing this sonata with its predecessors, the "powerful" op. 31, no. 2 in D minor, and op. 31, no. 3, the E flat sonata "with its vein of subtle comedy." These are contrasted ways in which Beethoven was "at home" in a style he felt to be new. But with the "Waldstein," "Beethoven crossed the Rubicon." The allusion is justified since crossing the Rubicon "was an irrevocable act of war, the first act after long hesitation in hopes of compromise with the old regime." These "literary" assertions are not however "a prior fancies," but the result rather of thorough immersion in listening to the music bar by bar. There follow ten pages of analysis of the most minutely accurate sort, as suggested by sentences concerning twenty bars of "dominant preparation" that conclude the development and take us into the recapitulation of the first movement:

The preparation first continues with (e) for twice two bars, plus 2 compressed bars. Then it closes into a themeless passage of 14 bars on a distantly thunderous bass, at first in dialogue with R. H., for 4 bars, then gathered into a continuous roll below rising short runs in three 2-bar groups, each with its series of rhythmic compressions, and a fourth group fixed at the highest point and coalescing in 2 bars that finally run in contrary motion into the main theme.

The Mesopotamian manner? Not if one has the patience to get out the score and follow along. Tovey's pointings help us to replay and apprehend more distinctly what we've already registered with our ears. Yet the Companion goes on in this manner for almost 300 packed pages, and you would need to devote the rest of your life to Beethoven's sonatas if you planned to work through his bar-by-bar analysis for each one of them.

It so happens that Rosen, who spends much less time on the sonatas overall than does Tovey, allots a generous two paragraphs to these measures of "dominant preparation" at the end of the Waldstein's first movement development. Since he is much more selective than Tovey-- he doesn't attempt to go bar by bar through the sonatas-he can be expansive about moments and sequences he feels are crucial. I quote the end of his commentary about the "contrary motion" Tovey refers to in which the pianist's right and left hands are furthest apart, spanning five octaves, from high F (the highest note on Beethoven's keyboard) to low G: